An Old Man Prevents Me from Committing Murder
by LaHufflepuffGamer
Summary: Chiron leaves poor introverted Robyn to the mercy of Cabin Eleven, a packed and cramped cabin. Robyn tries her best to make a good impression on everyone, but it soon leads to her almost committing murder.


The nicest way to describe the Hermes cabin was, well, claustrophobic. I couldn't help but think of the God of Messengers and Thieves as quite the womanizer, considering that the place was packed.

It was kind of messy, but in a homey comfortable way, like you'd see in a household with a huge family. All of the bunks were taken, so there were sleeping bags spread across the floor, along with its owners' belongings. I found it a bit risky to leave your stuff around, being surrounded by the spawn of Hermes.

 _Please don't tell me I'm going to stay here_ , I wanted to beg to Chiron. I wasn't very sociable. In fact, if you looked up _Introvert_ in the dictionary, a photo of me would come up. I disliked being in crowds, and the threat that I might actually had to _talk_ to someone made shivers run down my spine.

"This is where the unclaimed stay," Chiron said cheerfully, and my heart sank. Oh boy.

Part of me was a bit relieved to realize that Hermes actually wasn't a womanizer. It would be embarrassing to have that quality in a parent.

A teenager a bit younger than me came up and my first thought was that he was an imp or some sort of elf. He had curly brown hair and slightly pointed ears and a slight grin that suggested mischief.

I had the sudden urge to growl _Don't even think about it, mister!_

"Hey, Chiron," he said. "Got another one?"

"Yes, Connor."

Connor flashed me a grin. "Nice. C'mon, let's find you a place."

Chiron looked satisfied. "I'll be in the Big House until then." He nodded his goodbye, and trotted away, leaving me with one of Santa's evil little elves.

I already missed him.

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

"Here's where you'll sleep," Connor said, tossing me a dusty sleeping bag.

We had managed to find a bit of space just in the corner, barely big enough for a sleeping bag and a bag for my things. Not that I had anything yet.

Connor's brother Travis walked up and said, "Got us another hottie?" with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

I felt like chucking an anvil at his groin, although my face flushed bright red with shyness. Boys have never flirted with me. My pleasure faded when I realized that Travis was obviously joking. Ugh. I hate boys.

Being surrounded by people I had never seen before in my life, I decided to make an impression. A good one, mind you.

"Hey," I said to Travis with a nod that was more like an upward jerk with my chin. "The name's Robyn Starling."

"Travis Stoll," he said, completely pokerfaced as he grabbed my hand and shook it.

Before I could control myself, I blurted, "Your last name is Stoll?"

"Yeah. So?"

"Your dad is the God of Thieves."

"Yeah. So?"

"And your last name is _Stoll._ "

"Yeah. So?"

With a wave of irritation, I realized that he was joking again. Or maybe not. The Stoll brothers were the kind of boys that could be really smart but acted dumb, or the other way around. I hoped the latter. If he was flirting with me, then I _really_ hoped he was stupid. I didn't like hanging out with boys.

I frowned slightly. "Okay, _Stoll_ ," I said slowly. "Well, now that I have a place to stay, what am I supposed to do now?"

"Anything you want, really," Connor said. "As long as it's here in camp, go ahead."

I smiled. "Is there archery?"

"Duh," Travis said. "What do you think the Apollo campers are best at? Baking cookies?"

It was such an awful poor-excuse of a joke that I rolled my eyes.

"Okay," I said. "Where is it?"

~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~

I held my shoulders back and straightened my posture as I pulled an arrow back. My vision tunneled as I focused on the target around 5 meters away. Nothing mattered, except that target.

My fingers itched to release the arrow, yet I held myself back. My position wasn't perfect yet. After moving my feet work a fraction of a millimeter and after my breathing steadied, I was ready.

"Don't mess up," a voice said.

Startled, I jumped and accidentally released the arrow. It sailed miles over the target and I resisted releasing a guttural roar of rage. That was the _fifth_ time I was interrupted by Percy Jackson, and I was reaching my limit.

"YOU BONEHEAD, JACKSON!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "YOU PIECE OF SLIME! THAT WAS GOING TO BE MY BEST ARROW YET!"

Percy held his hands up in mock surrender. "I was just telling you not to mess up," he said innocently, sea green eyes wide.

Clutching the bow so hard that my knuckles turned white, I stormed to him and glared in his eyes. We were almost the exact same height, so our eyes were almost level.

"What are you even _doing_ here, Jackson?" I snarled.

"Nothing," he said.

On the verge of punching his jaw out of place I said through grit teeth, "You've been disappearing and reappearing here the whole time I've been practicing. So what. Are. You. Doing. Here?"

Percy managed a little grin. "Just enjoying the show."

"Aurgh!" I exclaimed in frustration. "That's it, you stupid sea urchin!" As fast as I could, I knocked an arrow and aimed it at his chest.

"Hey, stop!" an unfamiliar voice ordered. A middle-aged man with grey hair jogged up.

"Please save the violence for later," he said sternly, though his grey eyes were sparkling with laughter. "I promise you two will find a way to work things out with my activity tomorrow."

"Oh, hey, Quintus," Percy said, looking slightly abashed.

"Activity?" I echoed, lowering my arrow.

"Yes," said Quintus. "I assure you that it will contain enough violence to get your messages through, yes?"

"Fine," I said tartly, returning the arrow to its quiver.

Quintus nodded in approval and left. Before he got out of view, a giant hellhound bounded over and smothered him with licks.

I had been seeing the huge canine occasionally throughout the day without anyone panicking, so I assumed she was benign.

"That's Mrs. O'Leary," Percy explained, pointing at the dog. For a moment, I thought he was talking about Quintus.

I merely nodded to show Percy that I got it and turned and left. As I was walking past the Ares cabin, a big burly girl walked up to me.

"Hey," she said. "You got a bone to pick with Jackson?"

I nodded. "Hades yeah."

The girl broke into a grin. "I saw what you did out there. Nice."

In spite of myself, I smiled back. "I'm Robyn, by the way."

"Clarisse."

We did a solid handshake, and I couldn't help but feel embarrassed at how formal out meeting was. I disliked physical contact with strangers.

"Well, Robyn," Clarisse said. "I hope you're an Ares kid, because you'd be pretty sweet on my Capture the Flag team."

She nodded to me and walked off.


End file.
